Turning Scraps into Plants

Kompost Kids Inc is an all-volunteer organization. Some of our most favorite volunteers are the plants that spontaneously grow or regrow in our compost piles. We frequently see potatoes and especially onions sprout new roots and new leaves in our contribution bins. Squash flourish in the finished compost piles. Plants thrive around us, and so we thought it would be fun to try to grow new plants from the seeds and remnants of scraps.

My first effort at this was a pineapple. You probably remember as a kid taking the top of a pineapple and putting it in water. It turns out this is how they are propagated in farming. The tops of plants are turned into the next generation of pineapple for the kitchen table. I’ve had this plant for for years now but have not been able to make it fruit.

Avocado is another popular childhood trick which I tried last year. You must be patient with the seed as it takes longer to produce a root than one might expect. In fact, I tried to sprout two seeds at the same time and they were dormant so long that my partner was convinced it would not work. Once the seed has sprouted you have to cut it back and do not let your cats eat the leaves.

However the most useful application of this property is that you can grow food plants from the remains of your groceries. There are many excellent resources about this. I have grown potatoes from a few fingerlings leftover from a farmers market purchase forgotten in the back of my refrigerator. Potatoes are perhaps the simplest of garden crops to grow you don’t even really need soil. Place them among hey with a little bit of compost in the bottom of a bucket with holes drilled in it and water regularly. As they sprout and the leaves begin to grow up mulch them with additional hay and compost until you’ve reached the top of the bucket. They are ready to harvest when the plant itself drives back. Dump them onto a tarp and fish out your fingerlings.

Herbs are also easy to propagate. Perhaps the most common example I’ve read about is spring onions which will begin to regrow independently in your refrigerator. You can encourage them to sprout new Roots by placing the base in water once those roots have grown put them back into soil and clip them as needed. You can do this with many herbs and non-edible plants. Try it with parsley or cilantro.

And many thanks to Milwaukee Area Science Advocates (MASA) for partnering with us on this project, and to Cristal Sanchez for her translation. Y muchisima gracias a Milwaukee Area Science Advocates por trabajar con nosotros en este proyecto, y a Cristal Sanchez para su traducion.